


Catching Up

by afteriwake



Series: A Past Love [5]
Category: Doctor Who, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-05
Updated: 2012-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-09 06:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/452234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amy decides to pay Sherlock a visit, and finds that so much has happened to him in the long time since he’s seen her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Catching Up

**Author's Note:**

> I figured that, thanks to timey wimey stuff, while it’s been around ten years since Amy last saw Sherlock, it’s been almost twice as long since he’s seen her. So this is going to be interesting…

She had been back home for a week when she made up her mind to visit him. All her old friends had moved on in their lives, and she couldn’t share what had happened with them without them thinking she’d lost her mind. She was lucky she was still able to find work; she was no longer doing advertisements for Petrichor but the fact she looked exactly the same even though nine years had passed helped. Apparently the public had a thing for gingers again. But she had been putting off this visit for reasons she still hadn’t sorted out, and after a week she didn’t have anything filling up her time to help put it off anymore.

He had her car still, so she hailed a cab outside her home and gave the driver his address. She’d only had a little bit of time with him and knew nothing of what he’d done since the summer when he left. River had told her the truth about that afternoon when they were found out, and while she knew she had legitimately good reasons for doing it she also felt rather betrayed. For all she knew nothing would have happened and it would have flickered out on its own and she’d still have ended up with Rory. She’d never know now, though, and it didn’t really matter anymore.

When the cab pulled up she saw a blonde man and a pregnant woman coming out. She opened the door and before she could get out of the cab the man came over to her. "You're Amelia, right?” the man asked. She nodded, and he gave her a smile. “I’m John Watson, his friend and flat mate. He’s inside, but he said something about going to Scotland Yard to see if he could get a case. You might want to go in and stop him if you want to chat.”

“I will. Thanks,” she said with a smile. She got out of the cab, took a deep breath and then went to his door. Nervously, she lifted up her hand and knocked. She waited a few minutes but there was no answer. She raised her hand and knocked again, and just as she pulled her hand away it swung open and she jumped.

“Oh. Amelia,” he said, surprised. “Umm…come in.”

“Thank you,” she said. He moved out of the way and she walked into his home. He led the way to his sitting room and she took a cursory look around, taking it all in. She never would have imagined him living with some of these items when he was young. A whole lot must have changed when he got older. But somehow it still seemed to fit him.

“Would you like some tea?” he asked. He appeared to be just as nervous as she was, and that eased her level of nervousness a bit.

“Yes, thank you,” she said with a smile.

He went into the kitchen and began to make the tea, and she sat down in a chair, looking around again. He didn’t speak as he went about making it, and she found herself with time to think. By the time he was done and coming over with a cup of tea and a saucer she’d thought she’d figured out a few things about him. “Here,” he said.

“Thank you.” She just realized she’d said that phrase an awful lot since she walked in. “I had promised I would come visit. I hope it’s not a bad time.”

“No, it’s not a bad time. I can put off going to Scotland Yard today,” he replied. He sat down on the sofa and looked at her. “How are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m…okay. There’s days I want to just stay in bed and cry all day, but I force myself to get up and do something, and that helps.” She had so many things she wanted to ask him. She had to get to know him all over again, and to make it even harder it had only been about ten years since she last saw him but nearly twenty since he had seen her. She looked at him closely and could see it etched in his face. He had seen things, done things. She needed to remember he was no longer the boy she had loved back then. He had grown up and been through an awful lot. “What about you? How are you doing?”

“I’ve been scolded a few times for disappearing again,” he said with the ghost of a smile.

“Again?” she asked, confused.

“I had to fake my death a few years back,” he replied. “Someone had threatened to kill everybody I held dear. I had to make the world think I was a fake and then I had to pretend to die. I took down the criminal organization and returned about four years ago. Rebuilding my reputation has been harder than settling into my old life again. Those that were loyal to me still were when I returned, and that helped.”

“Ah,” she said with a nod. Indeed, he had had an eventful life since they lost contact. She sipped some of her tea. It might be easier just to talk about him for a while, avoid talking about her past, her feelings. “River told me you were the world’s only consulting detective,” she replied.

He nodded. “I invented the job myself. I do private work sometimes, but mostly I work with Scotland Yard on hard cases, the ones they have trouble solving. I suppose I’ve been easier to work with since I returned the first time, because people other than Lestrade call me in for cases now.”

“You were hard to work with?” she asked.

“Very. I did not grow into a very nice man,” he replied quietly. She pondered for a moment how much of that had to do with what happened between them. “You grew into a very good person, I do know that much.”

“Thank you,” she said, a slight blush at her cheeks.

“The Doctor and River talked about you a lot as we looked. I know so much more about you now, but you know so little about me. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“Then tell me about you,” she said. “I mean, if you have time.”

“I can make time today,” he said. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” she said.

He began to talk, and she listened. Sometimes she had questions, and he answered them patiently, even when she thought they were foolish. Hours went by, and she found herself enthralled by the things she learned. It was dark when his friend arrived, this time alone, and she knew it would probably be a good time to leave. But John told her to stay, he’d keep himself scarce. So she stayed put until she started to feel hungry, and then she knew it was time to call it a night.

“Can I come back and visit?” she asked as they stood up.

“Of course,” he replied with a nod. She went over to him and gave him a hug, which he returned with just a little awkwardness. “Let me give you my phone number as well,” he said as she let go. “If you need anything, just call.”

“All right,” she said. One of the first things she had done was restart her phone, and thankfully she had been able to keep her old number. They exchanged numbers and put them on their phones, and then with a wave she left. She was out the second door when she heard it open behind her, and she turned. Sherlock had a car key in his hand. “You don’t have to…” she said.

“It’s your car. John assured me it’s well tuned and there’s gas in it. He took care of it while I was looking for you.” He put the key in her hand. “We can transfer title and registration over later.”

She smiled at him. “Okay,” she said. She walked over to the car and touched it lovingly, then unlocked the driver’s side door and got in. She put the key in the ignition and turned it on, and felt pleased when it started right up. She waved to Sherlock and drove home. That night, she didn’t feel quite as alone as she had before. She still missed Rory more than she wanted to think about, but she didn’t feel _alone_ , because now there was someone she could talk to who wouldn’t think she was crazy. Whatever else he may have been, now she could count him as a friend, and that was good.


End file.
